Between a long-time coworker quitting, and a long-time friend moving
away, I seem to be running low on people to talk me out of crazy ideas. This could lead to me to start
acting on risky impulses
a lot more often. You may ask, is that a good thing or a bad thing? I think the answer to that really
depends on how many people reading this column have money they're willing to use to fund hairbrained
schemes. In any case, on with the column!

Hi great and slimey search engine!
As most of RPG fans, I'm very annoyed by the fact that most of
japanese rpgs are out in US at least after 4 months later.But it's
when I see that not even an anouncement for the EU release has
been made that makes steams come out of my ears.
The only solution to this problem is ordering from US, but even
then, the time of arrival may vary from 10 to 90 days.I hope that
someday manufacturers and distributors will find a way to release
the US and EU ports at the same time or at least with a difference
less than a month.(So, I hope I wont die waiting for EU FFX... )

-Areku a.k.a Dark Chocobo

Googleshng:
There are a number of reasons why the US gets RPGs a good deal ahead of Europe. First there's the fact
that there's an awful lot of people here who all speak the same language. That gives the US some justified
priority. Then there's the fact that you have PAL TVs. That throws in the occassional technical issue.
That last one most likely doesn't account for much porting time, and the others I can think of don't really hold water,
but it still stands that releasing a game in North America gets you more money back on your dollar than
releasing a game in Europe does. So, we get games first sometimes, and we get games you don't get others.
It's a bit of a shame, but if it makes you feel any better, you can always grab the European release of
Shenmue 2 and wave it around US gamers in a taunting fashion. Terranigma works too.

Long Multiparter on Movies

Hi again,

I've a few questions about upcoming games this time...

1. I finally got around to downloading the Xenosaga
trailer. Wow. Ironically, that same day I read an
article about a hypothetical movie theater that would
allow the audience to vote at key points to determine
further action (which is ridiculous, in my opinion).
Anyway, what I was wondering was why exactly our games
have become movies while people are trying to make our
movies into games.

Googleshng:
Well, movies are made into games because movies produce merchandise. That's a law of the universe. As
for games emulating movies, well, that started out as a series of benchmarks to prove games' capacity
for artistic presentation. Fun with camera angles, presentation, and all that. At this point though,
giving a game a "cinematic feel" really isn't impressive at all. Especially when they have the capacity
to do so many things that movies can't, or at least can't without a huge budget. It's one of those things
that's a proven success though, like doing all the music in a horror film with a violin. Don't expect
it to stop any time soon.

2. Have you watched RPGamer's clip for Kingdom Hearts?
Personally, I can't wait to play it, but do you think
there's a chance in the world that it'll be any good?
I'm hoping for the same effect as Mario RPG/Paper
Mario...

Googleshng:
Ah, Kingdom Hearts. While there is little doubt in my mind that by any standard criteria, it will be a
terrible excuse for an RPG, thanks mostly to the target age group for Disney related things, it has a
certain bizarre appeal to it by virtue of being so insane.

3. Concerning yet another clip (yeah, I'm finally back
to the broadband goodness of college), what do you
think of the new Zelda? I think it's going to be
great, as Shigeru can be described as nothing short of
a genius. However, did the clip seem really strange
to you? I assume it was mainly detailing non-play
parts of the game, but Link and the gang seem to
eerily resemble Disney characters performing some
strange choreographed dance scene. I could almost
hear Link bursting into song while he was being chased
around.

Googleshng:
They don't look like Disney characters really, at least not Link, and at least half of that clip looked
like actual gameplay. Zelda isn't exactly big on cut scenes even these days. As for what I think of the
visual style, well, it grew on me real quick, but then, I've always been a sucker for shock value.

4. What possible reason could Sega have for putting
Shenmue 2 only on the X-Box in the U.S.? More to the
point, why does the X-Box even exist? I suspect it's
sole purpose is to draw away awesome third party games
just to make me mad...

Googleshng:
It's very simple. Let's say you're Sega. Despite the fact that there's still a number of first rate games
due out for your system, the media has already tagged it's proverbial toe. Not enough people own the
system for you to turn a substancial profit on said first rate games, and they sure as heck aren't going
to buy them now. Then some company offers you a huge ammount of money for the US publishing rights to
this game. You get a lot of money, you don't have to take the risk of producing a bunch of discs that
probably won't sell too well. Since you're already swallowing your pride and leaving the console game,
chances are you aren't really considering any principals, and would happily accept a large amount of
money over taking a risky gamble without much reward.

Now let's say you're Microsoft. You just obtained the publishing rights to a pretty well anticipated
game, and you're about to launch a console whose odds of survival suck since it's more expensive and
has FAR less noteworthy exclusive games on it. So, despite and in fact BECAUSE there being a good number
of Dreamcast users who have been eagerly antipating the game, you kick them in the teeth and release it
only on your new system, giving you one more noteworthy exclusive game which even has a huge amount of
media and fan hype built around it.

While this sort of business tactic may shock a good number of gamers, it is actually one of the least
cruel things Microsoft has done, even in terms of games. Take for example when they bought out FASA and
scrapped a pending Shadowrun PC RPG to focus on the Mech Warrior series.

5. The Suikoden Card game really does look awesome,
but so do a lot of other games slated for U.S. GBA
release, so I'm not complaining. My question is, do
you know enough Nihongo to play Japanese games and
actually enjoy them? I am diligently working toward
that end even as we speak.

I realize these questions are long and sort of
rambling. Feel free to cut out any or all (i.e., not
printing this letter) parts you wish.

-jaraph "could the GBA actually be better than the SNES!?!"

Googleshng:
While I know enough Japanese to gripe about errors made in anime subtitles, I'm basically illiterate.
As if learning a new alphabet wasn't hard enough, there's also kanji to deal with, and even a lot of
people in Japan have trouble with that. I can still play import games and enjoy them though if I'm not
in it for the plot, or they have spoken dialog.

Stuff

Hey (Imperial Mog sings) Googleshng!
Hi There. I usually only send comments and no questions, but today I'll make
an exception. Although, come to think of it, I usually don't send you
anything. Anyway, I would like to know if you, or any one you know, have
seen the Parasite Eve movie that was recently released, and if was any good.
Secondly, about your Scary Pic contest, why would any one want you to draw a
scary pic of their favorite character? It just doesn't make sense. I would
want my least favorite (Squall, how I hate him, and the game he was in) drawn
in a scary fashion. Thirdly and finally, who do you think is sexier
tif...actually I'll only ask two questions, my third one would threaten the
chance of this being printed.
-Vic, who forced Imperial Mog to sing your name

Googleshng:
I haven't seen the PE movie, no do I particularly wish to. Live action gooey transformations aren't my
thing. As for scary pics, it's just more WRONG if you like the characters, and WRONG is good.

Oh boy...

Hey Goog, when you said yesterday (Oct 16) that you
didn't hear anything about a FFA bug in the PS2, you
must not read the site you write for. For shame!

http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q4-2000/120800d.html

This should answer that.

Nichabod

Googleshng:
You know, I actually DO read nearly every story posted on RPGamer, and I have a good enough memory to
recall incendental facts I glanced at a year ago (it sucks really, every bad movie trailer I've ever
seen in my life is still in my head and will be until I die). The fact still remains though that out
of the many people I know who have played FFA on the PS2, not one has complained about it being buggy.
So, while I may have READ about a bug a long time ago, from a list of potentially buggy games, I have
never HEARD about one, as I said yesterday, which seems to indicate that it does not in fact exist, at
least not everyhere. So to all the people who pointed this story out, let me just say 8P

Link

Ciao Google!!!

My name is Felipe Ramos, aka Felix and I am the webmaster of Final Fantasy Loku... eh... I know that you never heard about this site, but it doesn't matter. It's a little italian FF6 site (Well... I'm a crazy brasilian dude, that made an Italian web site... Don't ask me why...)

ANYWAY... My question is... HOW CAME IT'S SOOOOOOOOO HARD TO FIND THE BANNER OF RPGAMER in the site itself???? I tried hard, but the only thing that I got was the knowledge of knowing how to finish almost every rpg in the world :)

Well... Do you have the anwser???

Felipe Ramos, aka Felix
PS = (Sorry if my english is bad, I lived at Boston for two years, but I never figured out how to speak english :| )

Googleshng:
I would seriously like to know how it is that I am a magnet for letters from Brazil some day. Anyway though,
you have a hard time finding this? http://www.rpgamer.com/links/link2rpgamer.html That's odd. All you
have to do is click our easy to overlook Feedback link, then the extremely hard to find FAQ link from
there, and then root around for a link to that! It's sim- no wait, it's needlessly complicated.

Quickies

How does the date 10/11/01 convert to 45 as you did to get the title for a column last week?
Just wondering, maybe I missed something.
dario

Binary. 101101=32+0+8+4+0+1=45

Is Dragon Warrior VII released on Nov. 1 or is it in stores Nov. 1?

Ladune

11/1 is the ship date, so don't expect to actually see it until 11/2.

I bet Goog won't print this quickie in the column.
I bet you he won't play this new **** mail.
It's not that it's **** or **** controversial,
Just that the ****ing words are awfully strong.
You can't sayÊ**** in the column,
OrÊ**** orÊ**** or *********.
You can't even say I'd like toÊ**** you some day,
Unless you're a doctor with a very large ****.
So, I bet you Goog won't print this quickie in the column.
I bet you he daren't ****ing well include it.
I bet you that ****ing old Q&A writer,
Will think it's a load of horse ****.

You made a bad bet Mr. Quoter of Monty Python Songs With a few Words Changed! Now pay up!